A boy card

Hello!

A quick post for a quick card tonight. I played with my new die Papertrey Ink Text Block: Birthday. This has to be the quickest way to make a birthday card! This card was made for a friend of my daughter's. He's an 11 year old boy, so no bling or flowers allowed. ;-)

The tricky part was figuring out how to stick down the little pieces. I have come to the conclusion that I need a Xyron. The patterned paper is Stampin' Up! It's current, but I forget it's name...

Tonight I baked banana and raspberry cupcakes for the kids' afternoon teas. I usually make banana cake, but I was short on bananas, so I added raspberries to bulk out the fruit content. Oh YUM! :-)

Thank-you for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

A little bit of sunshine

Hello!

I have made another one-layer card. Stretching my one-layer thinking prior to starting Online Card Classes, Clean & Simple #3. This one was for my Mum's birthday this week. She loved it!

I used PTI Doodlie-Do stamps. Colours are Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. I added SU! Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the centres of the large flowers, adding a little extra texture and interest.

I'm entering this into:
Make It Monday - add texture to one-layer cards, 
One Layer Simplicity - just add water,
and Cure For The Monday Blues - I couldn't resist the yellow :-)

I'm a little tired today. My eldest daughter had a friend over for a sleepover last night. They were great, but... My littlest girl decided she should have a sleepover too... in my bed... in my space... sigh!

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

A little bit of green

Hello!

I have some new stamps. I couldn't wait to try them out. I had to wait DAYS before I got a spare moment. It was an agonizing wait, lol! Here is the first of the cards I made.

I am so happy with this card! It worked better than I had hoped. The green and espresso brown speech bubbles really pop off this one-layer card in real life. I'm not sure if you can get the effect on the computer, or not. This card involved a little masking to create the effect. I used PTI Doodlie-Do and Sweet Speech stamps. Inks are SU! Early Espresso and Mama Elephant Mojito.

I hesitated to get Doodlie-Do, even though I loved it at first sight. The hesitation was that some of the most striking examples I've seen are coloured with Copics, and I don't have Copics. But, it turns out that it works without being coloured, and in another card I made, I coloured with Inktense pencils and that worked too. :-) I am in love with this set!  I have several ideas brewing.  The Sweet Speech set fills a little gap in my stamp collection very nicely. They really are sweet!

I am entering into three challenges. In no particular order, I have entered:

The Card Concept. I'm not sure what style this is, CAS or CAG. Is it even clean with all those flowers? It was relatively simple to make.

CAS(E) This Sketch.

Make It Monday. We were asked to add texture to a one-layer card. I have used masking mixed with bold speech bubbles against a doodle background.

Today I had my Mum over for lunch to celebrate her birthday, which was yesterday. We had a lovely morning of playing cards (500) and a light lunch of salad and meats. It was really nice to spend some relaxed time together.

Thanks for coming by to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Party!

Hello!

I was just wandering through my photos and found a card I absolutely love, but that I didn't share. How did that happen? I'm not sure, probably because I made it for fun, and no other reason. :-)

I used PTI Sentiment Signs and Mama Elephant Party Kit stamps. Die is Mama Elephant Femme Frames. Inks are Memento Luxe (Rose Bud and Lilac Posies) and Memento (Tuxedo Black and London Fog). Card is PTI Hibiscus Burst and SU! Whisper White. Twine is Twinery.

Those balloons have been so much fun. Party Kit is an awesome stamp set. And this sentiment set, although it looks like it might not be so versatile, I have found it so easy to use!

I signed up for the new Online Card Classes - Clean & Simple #3. It's all about one layer cards (which this one is not). I LOVE one layer cards. A few years ago now I made my first one layer card for One Layer Wednesday (now One Layer Simplicity). It took me forever, but I was hooked! One layer cards are the ultimate canvas for uber-CAS cards, and I love a fabulous CAS card. :-)  I hope I can find some time to join in real-time. I aspire to create the perfect one layer CAS card... one day...

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle

xxx

Sunshine and Happiness

Hello!

I have a card for One Layer Simplicity, Virginia's View, and for Curtain Call.

This card was quite tricky! I usually do my watercolouring on watercolour paper. This time I just painted directly onto my regular cardstock (PTI Basic White). My card ended up a little warped, and the solution was to run it through my Big Shot (no dies, no impression plates, just the card with a rubber mat and the regular plates). It worked! My card was ironed flat. :-)  Stamps used were Mama Elephant Party Kit and So Breezy. Inks were PTI Melon Berry and Berry Sorbet. Sentiment was white embossed.

I have wanted to use these sentiments in this way since I first got So Breezy. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find a way to do it!

One Layer Simplicity calls for us to Just Add Water.
Curtain Call is Perfectly Peach.

And Virginia's inaugural challenge gives us lots of watercolour inspiration. Virginia tells us she misses Tuesday Triggers. I do too, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what inspiration she brings us as the challenge grows. :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle

xxx

Thank-You Berry Much

Hello!

I found a little time this week-end to play at my craft table. It seems that everyone is on a watercolour theme this week! I made a card that mixed the watercolour background of Make It Monday with the inspiration photo over at Taheerah's blog for Cure For The Monday Blues. I used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch.

I created my little watercolour panel by washing watercolour paper with water and then brushing over PTI Melon Berry and Berry Sorbet Inks. Then I white embossed the strawberries (PTI Strawberry Patch). I added the sequins to pick up some of the sparkle from the inspiration photo.

I also found some time to go out into my back yard and let my chickens have some free range time. I had my dog on the leash, because she seems to think that the chickens look like fun playmates. I'm pretty sure the chickens aren't keen on playing with a bouncy dog. ;-) The chickens are now 8 weeks old and they have grown!

This is Daisy and Peggy, our light sussex hens.

And this is Ozzie. Ozzie is our shyest chicken and I don't usually capture her in photos. This one was a bit of a miracle!  Ozzie is a Black Australorp hybrid (mixed with Isa Brown).

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Fusion #5

Hello!

I'm back with another Fusion Challenge card! I've gone one layer and I've taken one little portion of the inspiration photo and used the colours as well for this one.

See the lower left corner of the inspiration photo, where there are the line drawings over the coloured splotches? That is where I found my inspiration! :-) I took my Mama Elephant Nursery Deco stamps, flipped them over and stamped the splotches, and then flipped them the right way  to stamp the black line images. I've never used this technique before. I think I'll play around with it a little more, it was fun! Colours are Distress Ink Mustard Seed, and SU! Pool Party. The black was Ranger Archival Black. I'm still intrigued by that handbag, too... perhaps I'll come back later in the week to respond to that little piece of inspiration. ;-)

If you'd like to see some of the other inspiration on offer for this challenge, why not drop by the rest of the design team?

Betty J
Cathy Weber 
Dannielle Robeson
Deepti
Geri Freeman
Julia Aston
Katie Brooks
Kelly Griglione
Kimberly Wiener 

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan 

Michelle Lupton

Sindhu
Stephanie Severin

Some of you will remember my dog Coco's adventures three weeks lost in the wilderness (of suburban Brisbane) through January. We took her for a haircut on the week-end, and under her fur I found her weight has been fully recovered (and perhaps a little extra, oops!). Here are some before and after photos. I like her furry, but the heat is too high at the moment to leave her with too much cover.

 This week I've been in Perth. As this post goes live I will be flying back into Brisbane. I have never been to Perth. It is over five hours flight away, on the other side of the country. Unfortunately I only get one and a half days and I'm working the whole time, otherwise I would be catching up with some of my friends while I'm there. I can't believe I'm going to Perth and can't meet up with anyone!! I probably won't even get to see much of the City, and I hear it is beautiful. I might have to get up early and take a little walk. :-)

Thank-you for visiting! I hope to see you over at Fusion soon!

Michelle
xxx